Pick of the Week ♦ June 20th

With more than 100 active members, untitled is undeniably the city’s most artist-driven group. Dedicated to open membership and member input, the 12-year-old untitled is also the city’s most adventurous when it comes to venues for its quarterly exhibitions. The location for its annual summer show, taking place Friday night, is no exception. It all came about a few months ago, when Keisha Beard purchased works by untitled artist Marsha Rusk to adorn her new Essense Day Spa on Jefferson Street. When Rusk mentioned to Beard that untitled was looking for an exhibition space, Beard immediately volunteered the Essense Room, an event venue adjacent to the day spa. Along with ample off-street parking and plenty of wall space for art, the Essense Room offers artists and patrons alike a chance to discover a Nashville neighborhood on the brink of revival. Located seven blocks from the Farmers Market and just down the street from Fisk University, the space is also convenient to downtown and the interstate. Meanwhile, the art that will be on view (and for sale) promises to be as inventive and interesting as the location. Expect to see photography from Jeff Frazier, Stacey Irvin and Joe Hardwick, computer-generated mandalas from Massood Taj, paintings by Andee Rudloff and Chris Scarborough, prints by Isle of Printing owner Bryce McCloud, and work in all media by dozens of other artists. In fact, it’s always a toss-up as to who and what you’ll see at an untitled show—and that, of course, is part of the appeal. The show runs 6-10 p.m. June 20.

—A.W.

This week’s picks by Martin Brady, Jonathan Flax, Heather Johnson, Bill Levine, Jonathan Marx, Steve Morley, Margaret Renkl, Saby Reyes-Kulkarni, Jim Ridley, Jack Silverman, Jon Weisberger, Angela Wibking and Ron Wynn.

Music

Thursday, 19th

Robinella & The C.C. String Band It’s been just four years since this outfit formerly known as The Stringbeans played their first gig at Knoxville’s Campus Pub. Robinella and her husband/mandolinist Cruz Contreras, as well as his brother Billy Contreras, won over their hometown with their intoxicating mix of jazz, bluegrass and Western swing. As their Columbia Records debut from earlier this year attests, Robinella’s honey-sweet voice and the Contreras’ spirited playing also have the potential to charm the multitudes looking for an alternative to their worn-out copies of Norah Jones’ CD. They open for the Del McCoury Band. Ryman Auditorium

—H.J.

Friday, 20th

The Cherry Valence This Raleigh, N.C., band play rough rawk ’n’ roll surging with meaty riffs and gutsy vocals that recall the proto-punk of MC5 and The Stooges. Sure, you’ve heard it before, but The Cherry Valence also draw on ’70s bubblegum and heavy metal to create a sound that, if not wholly original, is still one of their own making. And it practically goes without saying that it’ll sound damn good cranked up really high, especially with the perfectly billed Trauma Team opening the show. Slow Bar

—J.M.

Saturday, 21st

LaDonna Smith A Birmingham-based violinist and violist, Smith is recognized internationally for her boundary-crossing improvisational work, which reaches beyond classical forms and techniques to unfold multi-voiced, surreal stories and convey impulsive, ever-shifting dance rhythms. Besides founding and co-editing the leading free-music journal the improvisor, Smith has set the standard for open collaborations across cultures and among different media, including choreography. Emphasizing the physical immediacy and intuitive freedom of expressive music over what can be deadening conventions, Smith sees the improvisational movement of recent years as opening up new doorways of “organismic” perception and response to all. ruby green contemporary art center

—B.L.

Malcolm Holcombe Singer-songwriter Holcombe’s 2003 CD Another Wisdom mines deeper into the amalgam of hard livin’ and homespun mountain parlance that’s become his stock-in-trade (e.g., “Slung up tight as a tick on a mongrel”). Always a captivating performer, Holcombe is an intrepid, restless soul whose shows can be unnerving to queasy first-timers. But once he reels you in, you’ll be back for more. One of his mentors, Ray Sisk, starts things off. Douglas Corner Cafe

—J.S.

Paul Rodgers/Kansas It’s a disservice to bill Rodgers as being “of Bad Company”; for one, his prior work with blues-rockers Free set the mark for unpretentious and muscular rock ’n’ roll. Rodgers has an instantly recognizable voice, a grainy, supple instrument free of macho posturing yet brimming with testosterone. Though radio has scorched his best-known tunes, he still has his chops and charisma and is a must-see for rockers of all stripes. Co-headliners Kansas play their classically influenced American rock tightly and dynamically, with an enthusiasm akin to their shows of 30 years ago. The vision of absent founder Kerry Livgren was assimilated so thoroughly by his otherwise intact band that his spirit is palpable onstage. The Ryman Auditorium (relocated from AmSouth Amphitheatre)

—S.M.

The Forty-Fives Cultural retrophilia usually amounts to calculated, empty camp. For bands who evoke the ’60s and ’70s under the banner of rock ’n’ roll, loving the past too often means living the past. Atlanta’s Forty-Fives are too smart and too sincere to constrain themselves. Yeah, they have mop-top haircuts and sound like The Kinks, but they love their soul records and it shows. They may not reinvent the wheel, but tail feathers shake when they hit a groove; at times, their sweaty delivery even glistens with hints of gospel power. Slow Bar